With his first studio release in four years, one of the most iconic gay music legends ever is back with a powerful collection of music, Stardom Road.

Even more than his unique vocal prowess and stand-out career highlights, Marc Almond has been a true gay star since days when being gay was something most performers hid for fear of damaging their careers - but not Almond.

From bursting forth in the music scene with Soft Cell and his legendary performance of 'Tainted Love', there never was a closet big enough to contain his immense showmanship and talent. Being gay is something that Almond has always held as an essential element of self. Not so much a badge to be worn or proclaimed but a truth that has never needed hiding.

Including duets with Antony (of Antony and The Johnsons) and Sarah Cracknell (of Saint Etienne) the new album brings a true gay 'Star' back to an army of fans that have waited and missed the unique impact and emotion that is Marc Almond.

So what was it like being a pop star in the eighties?
The thing about the eighties that people don’t realise is that, back then, people sold a huge amount of records; much bigger amounts of records than people do now. For example, when you had a top three or number one single, you were in almost every household and everybody knew you.

There was also a smaller amount of media back then. When you were on Top of the Pops every household watched you. You became very famous and sold a lot of records, whereas now it’s a little more diluted; people can watch different music shows now and get music from different places, but back then it was a whole different thing.

Of course, there were no downloads back then…
No, there was nothing - you used to have to buy a 7-inch single. I miss those – they were great things to have and they had nice covers. There were also a lot of very colourful, unique characters in the early eighties making pop music. Like me, they came from the background of the seventies where there were all these influences such as glam rock, punk and disco.

Do you think that everyone’s a bit plastic now?
Well, it’s all a bit manufactured, isn’t it? I mean, music’s always had that manufactured side to it, but it was still possible in the early eighties to be very original and to take all these influences of the glam, for example, and disco and punk and mix it all up. What came out was something quite original, whereas now the eighties tends to be re-worked a lot and revived again and again, really!

“I like to think that I did my bit in breaking down barriers, but in the early eighties it…wasn’t very easy to come out about your sexuality. Even though people knew, you couldn’t say it, because your records would be banned from the radio.”

Record companies own brands now, whereas back in the eighties – when you were starting out – you still had a lot of creative input even though there still was that sort of manufactured thing going on.
You could be involved in everything right down to the design of your look. Back then there wasn’t such a thing of having stylists – you really had to create your own look, your whole image and the way you sounded. Now you have a team of producers and stylists around you who tell you how to look and how to sound.

Was it your intention to have a career in music?
Not originally; I wanted to go into art at first! I spent about five years at Art College, but I found that I was no good at painting and I was no good at sculpture! Then I went into performance art doing strange cabaret shows around the late seventies, and that kind of developed into Soft Cell.

Did you do lots of contemporary dance?
Sort of! The shows were very - different, shall we say! I made films as well, but there were people doing things like that much better than I could and then, of course, the music took off and we had the huge success that we did. It was a huge shock to me as much as anybody else, I think.

What was it like? Can you remember how you felt at the time?
I was living in a semi-collective house of students at the time – one of those bed sits or even semi-squats, you could say - and I got the call on the phone saying that I was number one.

Did someone go, ‘Marc, there’s a telephone call for you!’?
Yes! My life was never the same after that, and it was never really the same after appearing on Top of the Pops. Once you appeared on Top of the Pops, your whole life changed, and for me it became lots of extremes - some people were really great to me, but of course I got a lot of real flack at the time.

I had to really run for my life a few times, because back then in the early eighties there was a lot of real and obvious homophobia. I mean, homophobia still exists now, to an extent, but it’s much more accepted to be a gay artist now – you have gay comedians and gay people on TV and so on.

That’s thanks to people like you, Marc.
I like to think that I did my bit in breaking down barriers, but in the early eighties it wasn’t very easy at all; it wasn’t very easy to come out about your sexuality. Even though people knew, you couldn’t say it, because your records would be banned from the radio.

“Once you appeared on Top of the Pops, your whole life changed and for me it became lots of extremes - some people were really great to me, but of course I got a lot of real flack at the time.”

Was that a very difficult time for you, then, dealing with your sexuality? I remember that you did seem fairly out and you certainly had an outlandish image, didn’t you?
Kind of, yeah! When I was a teenager, I liked people like David Bowie and T. Rex. I think that’s because they spoke to me about something and kind of opened a door to my life. I think there were many people who knew that I was gay, but it was hard to be really obvious about it or to say anything about it because it was actually quite a scary time. It was Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, and we all know how that went with Clause 28 and all. It was very difficult to be open and you really had to be very secretive about it.

What do you think was acceptable in the eighties?
I think that if you were presenting an acceptable gay image, you had to be very non-sexual, if you see what I mean. I think you had to be very non-threatening and non-sexual.

Hence the success of Boy George, I guess?
Boy George probably appealed to a wider amount of people because a lot of older grannies could tap into him and felt all protective towards him. But again, at that time George was very ambiguous about his sexuality. I think he presented a safe image to the public.

Did you have many grannies chasing after you?
I had various people chasing after me. People wanted to either murder me or mother me. A few people wanted to do other things, too, but we won’t go into that!

Your have a new album out at the moment called Stardom Road. Tell us about the track ‘Kitsch’.
To me, it represents pop stardom - it’s the most over-the-top song, but it says absolutely nothing. If you listen to the lyrics, they’re kind of meaningless drivel. It’s got references of T-Rex in there, and it’s even got references to Soft Cell! It’s an over-the-top song with a seventy piece orchestra that absolutely means nothing at all and, for me, that symbolises what I went through in the early eighties - the whole pop stardom thing, really. It was kitsch and it was ridiculous.

I love all the strings on the track, Marc – gorgeous.
It’s a bit over-the-top.

You’re quite good at all that stuff.
This album gave me the chance to be really over-the-top and to work with a seventy piece orchestra and it’s a very glamorous, high production album. I haven’t made an album like that since way back in the early nineties - every thing I’ve done since has been sort of low-fi and more electro. This is an over-the-top and camp album, really, and I loved doing it.

It sounds like a piece of musical theatre because it’s so dramatic. Are you thinking of writing a musical? You could put the songs onto a stage - it would look wonderful.
The album is like a musical based on my pop stardom life starring a version of me - I’d love to put it on stage!

Let me guess some of the people you might have in your music collection at home: I’m definitely going to go for Gene Pitney.
Yep.

Dusty Springfield?
Yeah, I’ve got Dusty Springfield.

Westlife?
Um, I don’t know whether I’ve got any Westlife! I’m not sure about that!

Have you got any Shirley Bassey?
There’s a bit of Shirley Bassey in there.

Fabulous; what about Scott Walker?
There’s definitely some Scott Walker - I like big singers with big songs. But you’ll also find Babyshambles in my record collection; you’ll find everything – punk, glam and so on. It’s a very eclectic record collection.

“If you were presenting an acceptable gay image, you had to be very non-sexual. I think you had to be very non-threatening and non-sexual.”

Have you heard Richard Grey’s ‘Warp Bass’ with the samples of ‘Tainted Love’ in it?
I heard it recently, actually. It was a bit naughty because I wasn’t told about it!

Slapped wrists!
No, it’s really good, actually; I really like it.

You famously had a pretty horrific accident a few years back. Are you fully recovered?
More or less – I’ve still got a few problems and maybe I won’t ever totally get over it, but I’m feeling a lot better now than I have in the past three years since the accident.

When something like that happens do you completely re-evaluate yourself and your life?
It made me feel that if life throws that at me, it can throw anything at me and I can deal with it. I’ve always been a pretty tough person anyway – ever since my school days I’ve had one obstacle after another to overcome – so I’ve been through a lot of bad times in my life.

Did you get bullied at school, then?
I got bullied a lot at school. I think it made me very tough and able to survive. I think, like a lot of people, when you’re bullied at school the only thing you can do is be a bit of a class joker - you can make people laugh and kind of get around it.

That would definitely be the word I would have next to your name: survivor.
I’ve survived alright, yeah!

How much did the crash affect your creativity?
For six months after the accident I couldn’t even listen to music because I had punctured ear drums. I had to go back to singing lessons to get my strength and stamina back. I couldn’t write songs for a while, either, because I was suffering from post traumatic stress.

The first real song I actually wrote after the accident was ‘Redeem Me (Beauty Will Redeem the World)’ from Stardom Road. I thought it was important to end the album with an original song, because it is in many ways a recovery album. Ending with an original song meant pointing the way to the future and indicated recovery, optimism and the fact that I was writing songs again.

“This album gave me the chance to be really over-the-top and to work with a seventy piece orchestra and it’s a very glamorous, high production album.”

What was it like working with Antony Hegarty? He’s just amazing!
Antony’s a great friend of mine; we’ve known each other for a while. It’s very daunting when you sing with Antony because he has such a beautiful, fantastic voice. He’s a really lovely person as well - he helped me a lot after the accident. He was the first person to bring me back on stage again with Antony and the Johnsons at the Royal Festival Hall a couple of years ago - that was very daunting and he helped me. The first track I did with Antony was the first track I did for the album.

’The Ballad of the Sad Young Men’?
Yes, he helped me produce it. I also recorded a song of his called ‘River of Sorrows’, which I think is going to be available as a special extra with the next single.

Just one more question from GaydarRadio’s Gary H who saw you at Grand Canary Pride. Did you enjoy it?
I had great fun, actually! It was fantastic.

Find out more at www.marcalmondstardom.com and look out for our review of Stardom Road next week.

Stardom Road, by Marc Almond
Label: Sequel
Released: 4 June 2007
ASIN: B000P46PA0

Buy Stardom Road online now and make your own mind up about Marc Almonds new album. Get it online and save yourself some money to put towards his earlier album, The Radio 1 Sessions Vol.1 1983-1984.